Our original plan was to visit Phi Phi for a few days, see in the new year, do a little diving, and then head on out to another island. We ended up staying on Phi Phi for 9 days and only left because we had to catch a flight to Singapore.

Hard to explain why we ended up staying here so long but I guess it's because it had a great climate, plenty to keep yourself busy, everything on your doorstep and within walking distance, and some great diving. Also probably because we had been on the move so much recently it would be nice to actually see what is in the bottom of our backpacks...!

We very quickly met Aoibhinn and Ronan (hi guys) and ended up having a blast on New Years' Eve with them

. They sell drinks by the bucket here and we all very quickly got merry and danced away at the beach party on the North side of the bay. Mike ended up starting the count down (feeling very proud of himself) as the DJ's had completely forgotten that the clock had struck 12! Then started the Lip Ferreting......(see pictures)

After a passing hang over we ended up booking ourselves some diving for the week to come and were not disappointed. Bida Noch and Bida Nai are rated as some of the best dive sites in the world and we saw so many things around 18 metres below the surface. Turtles, sharks, barracuda, clown fish (Nemo to you non-divers)... you name it we saw it! We also dived the King Cruiser Wreck (27 metres below) and Shark Point which were absolutely brilliant too. The wreck dive had some great swim throughs and some of the best visibility that the instructors had seen at this site. The boat was teeming with fish and we even managed to see many different moray eels (one of which was living in the toilet of the boat) and also the highly poisonous Lionfish and Scorpionfish. Shark point..... well... it had one resident Tiger shark and loads of other fish but that was about it but the coral and the number of different varities of fish made this site spectacular.

A much enjoyed rest and relaxtion on Phi Phi for both of us, we were sad to leave but ready to move on. Just one more stop here in the far east before we head off to Australia.

Next stop Singapore..............

P.S. Happy new year to those of you we hadn't managed to talk too or email.